It's no secret that photography company Kodak has been down on its luck in recent years. The company, which was once a pioneer in digital photography, found itself unable to compete with more agile competitors like Nikon and Canon. Even more telling is with the rise of smartphones with increasingly better picture/video-capturing capabilities, the market for dedicated point-and-shoot cameras has been steadily eroding; a point that Sony has already conceded.

Given that Kodak digital cameras typically couldn't hold a candle to competition from Nikon, Canon, and Sony, it should come as no surprise that following the company's announcement last month that it was filing for bankruptcy that the next step would be to shutter its digital camera business.

Digital cameras, however, aren't the only casualties -- Kodak will also discontinue pocket video cameras and digital photo frames. These product lines will be phased out during the first half of 2012.

“For some time, Kodak’s strategy has been to improve margins in the capture device business by narrowing our participation in terms of product portfolio, geographies and retail outlets. Today’s announcement is the logical extension of that process, given our analysis of the industry trends,” said Pradeep Jotwani, President, Consumer Businesses, and Kodak Chief Marketing Officer.

Kodak will now focus its energies on its more profitable areas including retail photo printing, desktop inkjet printing, its Kodak Gallery online photo service, and traditional film capture business.